The present invention relates to cigarettes, and relates more particularly to such a cigarette which has installed fire extinguisher means, which can be operated simply by a squeezing force to release water to quench the flame.
When stop smoking, the flame of the cigarette must be quenched. If the flame is not quenched when the cigarette is thrown away, a fire accident may occur. Various means for automatically extinguishing a cigarette have been disclosed. U.S. Pat. No. 3,985,143 discloses a self-extinguishing cigarette which has means for automatically extinguishing the cigarette when the cigarette has burned to a pre-determined position along its length, positioned at the required location within the tobacco and the paper tube (see FIG. 1). The sack of extinguishing means will be ruptured by the advancing heat of the burning tobacco and a sufficient quantity of water will be released to quench the flame. The main drawback of this structure of self-extinguishing cigarette is that the cigarette extinguishing means works only when the sack is ruptured by the advancing heat of the burning tobacco. U.S. Pat. No. 4,436,101 discloses another structure of self-extinguishing cigarette in which a compressible water container means is embedded within the filter-tip and extending into the compacted tobacco of the smoking-portion of the cigarette (see FIG. 2). The drawback of this structure of self-extinguishing cigarette is that the cigarette distinguishing means works only when the flame reaches the front end of the water container means. U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,522 discloses an automatic cigarette extinguishing apparatus which comprises a tank portion having a through hole through which a cigarette extends, the tank portion being located at an arbitrary position on a peripheral surface of the cigarette through the through hole and being made of a material having a melting temperature lower than a combustion temperature of tobacco; and extinguishing means stored in the tank portion, the tank portion being arranged to supply the extinguishing means to the tobacco upon combustion of the tobacco (see FIG. 3). This structure of automatic cigarette extinguishing apparatus is an independent accessory to be attached to the cigarette to be smoked. U.S. Pat. No. 5,174,309 discloses a cigarette with installed fire extinguisher which includes a fire extinguishing portion having a doughnut shape cross-section and including a thinner outer peripheral wall and a thicker inner peripheral wall which are radially spaced from each other to form a water storage between. When compressed, water is driven out of the fire extinguishing portion to quench the flame. This main drawback of this structure of cigarette with installed fire extinguisher is that water cannot be effectively driven to the burning end of the cigarette to quench the flame.